Culinary Titles to Honor Black History Month
February marks Black History Month, a time to celebrate the achievements and accomplishments of African Americans. As someone who appreciates food and makes a living from it, it’s important that we honor the contributions of the African American kitchen and its vital impact on the diaspora of our national cuisine. For enslaved Africans, food became a way to connect to their ancestral roots and to reclaim an identity that was stolen from them in a manner so violent and vicious that it’s difficult for many of us to fathom or even discuss. Many of the foods that we consider to be deeply American including gumbo, fried chicken or barbecue have their origins in black foodways. In fact, when we speak of southern cuisine, what we are really referring to are foods that have their roots in African American food culture and the following books honor that extraordinary legacy.
The Cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty
This James Beard Award-winning food memoir by culinary historian Michael W. Twitty changed the way I view Southern food. Michael traces his ancestry—both black and white—through food, from Africa to America and slavery to freedom and dares to ask the question, “Who really owns southern food?'“ One reviewer on Amazon put it best, “But as Michael so adeptly realized through his interest in both history and food is that you can't strip away how people cook. So, the victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade retained their cooking techniques and shared them with others. Over time their foodways became our foodways. But even though his enslaved ancestors couldn't pass down their cultural identities as my Ashkenazi Jewish ancestors could, they passed down their foodways to him along with their actual DNA.” The Cooking Gene is an illuminating read and I simply cannot recommend it enough. It’s one of those life-changing books that will stay with you long after you’ve read it.
Jubilee by Toni Tipton-Martin
Toni Tipton-Martin is a culinary journalist, James Beard Award-winning author and a community activist who has dedicated her career to building a healthier community. In Jubilee, Tipton-Martin offers more than 100 recipes, from classics such as Sweet Potato Biscuits, Seafood Gumbo, Buttermilk Fried Chicken, and Pecan Pie with Bourbon to lesser-known but even more decadent dishes like Bourbon & Apple Hot Toddies, Spoon Bread, and Baked Ham Glazed with Champagne, Jubilee presents techniques, ingredients, and dishes that show the roots of African American cooking. The photographs are absolutely gorgeous and you’re going to want to make every single recipe but I highly recommend the Seafood Gumbo!
The Jemima Code by Toni Tipton-Martin
To discover the true role of black women in the creation of American, and especially southern cuisine, Toni Tipton-Martin has spent years amassing one of the world’s largest private collections of cookbooks published by African American authors, looking for evidence of their impact on American food, families, and communities and for ways we might use that knowledge to inspire community wellness of every kind. The Jemima Code presents more than 150 black cookbooks that range from a rare 1827 house servant’s manual, the first book published by an African American in the trade, to modern classics by authors such as Edna Lewis and Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor. The books are arranged chronologically and illustrated with photos of their covers; many also display selected interior pages, including recipes.
The Taste of Country Cooking by Edna Lewis
Edna Lewis was one of the first to generate respect and acceptance for southern cooking as true American cuisine. Born in Freetown, Virginia, the granddaughter of freed slaves, she went on to become a celebrated black chef in New York in the late 1940s and 1950s, when there were few, if any, other black or female chefs working in the city. In recipes and reminiscences equally delicious, Edna Lewis celebrates the uniquely American country cooking she grew up with some fifty years ago in a small Virginia Piedmont farming community. With menus for the four seasons, she shares the ways her family prepared and enjoyed food, savoring the delights of each special time of year.
Grandbaby Cakes by Jocelyn Delk Adams
Jocelyn Delk Adams is a Chicago-based writer and the founder of Grandbaby Cakes, a food blog inspired by her grandmother who she affectionately called “Big Mama”. She is also the founder of "A Charitable Confection," an annual anti-violence dessert fundraiser featuring the top bakeries in Chicago. Grandbaby Cakes is Jocelyn’s first book but also a love letter to her family as she traces the stories and origins of 50 vintage cakes and honoring those who came before and preserving the memories and traditions for future generations.
Notes from a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi
Kwame Onwuachi is the James Beard Award-winning executive chef at Kith/Kin in Washington, D.C. He was born on Long Island and raised in New York City, Nigeria, and Louisiana. In this gripping memoir, Kwame takes us on a journey of being first exposed to cooking by his mother and her catering business, dealings with his abusive father and then being sent to Nigeria to live with his grandfather in an attempt to straighten him out. Two years later, he returned to New York and things continued to spiral out of control as he joined a gang, sold drugs and got expelled from college. He eventually turned his life around by turning his passion for cooking into a career. He overcame massive obstacles and deeply entrenched racism and is now celebrated as a successful restaurateur and role model. Kwame’s cooking style can be dubbed Afro-Caribbean but his true intention is to share the stories of his ancestors by exploring the rich diaspora of African food. Here’s an NPR interview with Chef Kwame discussing his life and times, give it a listen but more importantly, read his book.